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How the Trivia Gauntlet Categories Came to Be

Trivia Gauntlet did not begin as one big site with lots of categories.

At the very beginning, it was much smaller and much more fragmented. I actually started with separate sites for separate interests. One was built around Harry Potter, and another was built around UFC. At the time, that made sense because those were the two themes I felt strongest about. They were the topics I knew best, cared about most, and felt most confident writing for.

But once I started adding more themes, that setup became harder to manage.

The Early Problem: Too Many Separate Sites

As the project started growing, I added more TV-related themes, especially sitcoms and rewatchable shows. At one point, that even led to a third site focused more on TV series.

That might sound strange now, but at the time I still did not know exactly what Trivia Gauntlet was going to become. I was building as I went, and the categories had not really formed yet.

After a while, though, it became obvious that running separate sites for different interests was too awkward. It was harder to manage, harder to market, and harder to explain. Sending people to one domain for Harry Potter, another for UFC, and another for TV series did not make much sense long term.

So eventually the project was rebuilt into one site, with everything grouped into categories.

That was when the category system really started to matter.

TV/Series Became the Biggest Category First

Once everything was brought together into one site, the first category that really expanded was TV/Series.

That happened for two reasons.

First, I personally watch more TV series than almost anything else, so naturally I had more material to work with there. Second, those were some of the themes I knew best. Shows like Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Community, and other sitcoms were easy to build around because I had seen them many times myself.

That matters when writing trivia. The quizzes are usually stronger when I know the source material well, because I can remember small details, better wrong options, and the kind of moments fans actually care about.

That is one reason the TV/Series category grew so quickly. It started with shows I already knew well, especially sitcoms and highly rewatchable series, and then kept expanding from there.

It is also why that category is still the biggest one on the site.

TV/Series Includes More Than Just TV Shows

Even though the category is called TV/Series, it is broader than that in practice.

It includes:

So the category really became the home for everything built around screen-based fandom. It was the broadest entertainment category from the beginning, which is another reason it grew so much.

Moving Beyond Only the Themes I Personally Knew

At first, I thought I would only build quizzes for themes I had personally watched, read, or followed closely.

That seemed safer, because those were the themes I felt most confident writing for. But after a while I realized that would keep the site too limited. Just because I had not watched a show myself did not mean its fans should be ignored.

So I started expanding beyond my own direct favorites.

For TV and entertainment themes, that often meant looking at what was popular more broadly. I would check major rankings, look at well-known series, and use lists of top shows to find other fandoms that clearly deserved a place on the site.

That was an important shift. It changed the project from “themes I personally know best” into something much broader.

Books Came First, But Stayed Smaller

Books were also there early because of Harry Potter.

That was one of the original foundations of the project, but books never expanded as easily as TV/Series. There are fewer huge book fandoms that fit the same quiz style, so that category stayed smaller.

It still matters, but it never became the main growth area in the same way TV/Series did.

Sports Was Also There Early

Sports was one of the earliest categories too.

It started, naturally, with MMA/UFC, because that was one of the topics I followed most closely at the time. Later I added football as well, because that was another sport I cared about and knew enough to build around.

After that, the category expanded into bigger sports and wrestling-related themes like:

Some of those were closer to my own interests than others, but they were all large enough to deserve a place on the site because they have strong fanbases and work well in quiz form.

So even though TV/Series became the biggest category, Sports was part of the project much earlier than some of the other later additions.

Why General Was Added

After TV/Series, Books, and Sports, I realized something else: not everyone coming to the site would be looking for a fandom quiz.

Some people want broader topics. They want history, geography, music, movies, or general knowledge rather than one specific show or franchise.

At first I was hesitant about this. General topics are more saturated, and there are already a lot of broad quiz sites out there. I did not want Trivia Gauntlet to become just another generic quiz app with no identity.

But over time it became clear that the site needed a General category too. There are players who may not care about sitcoms, fantasy shows, or sports, but would still enjoy history, music, geography, or movie-related quizzes.

So General was added as a way to make the site broader without abandoning the entertainment side that made it fun in the first place.

Why Games Became an Important Category

One of the categories that excited me most later on was Games.

Part of that was personal, because I do like games myself. But another big reason was that game trivia feels underrepresented compared to how huge gaming fandom actually is.

There are massive fanbases around games, but game trivia often feels thinner online than TV or movie trivia. That made Games feel like a strong opportunity for the site.

So I started with games I had played myself, then slowly expanded into other major titles and franchises as the category grew. Over time, Games became one of the most promising areas because it combines big fandoms with a space that still feels less crowded than some of the more traditional trivia niches.

Why Education Was Added

Eventually I also wanted the site to include something beyond entertainment and fandom.

That led to Education.

This category was added for players who wanted to use the site in a slightly different way. Instead of only playing quizzes about shows, games, or sports, they could also use it for subjects like:

This was not the biggest category in terms of fandom, but it gave the site another use case. It made Trivia Gauntlet useful for people who wanted quick quiz-based practice in academic or subject-based topics.

Why Countries Was Added

Later on, analytics also played a role in category growth.

As I looked at where players were coming from, I noticed a lot of traffic from countries like:

That made me think more seriously about country-specific quizzes.

So the Countries category was added as another way to give players something they could connect to directly, especially around geography, culture, history, sport, landmarks, and national identity.

It was another example of the site expanding by looking at what kinds of players were already showing up and asking what else they might actually want to play.

A Different Kind of Category Idea: Build Your Own Quiz

One of the things I also experimented with in the base version of the app, but have not fully brought into the HTML version yet, is a kind of create-your-own-quiz setup.

The idea is simple: instead of choosing only one theme, you can pick several at once and build a mixed quiz from them.

So instead of playing only Harry Potter or only UFC or only The Big Bang Theory, a player could choose multiple themes at once and create a quiz that mixes all of them together.

For example, someone could build a combined quiz using:

That idea matters because it shows another way the categories are meant to work. They are not only there to separate topics. They also make it possible, eventually, for players to curate their own mixed experience across very different interests.

It is something I still want to expand further, because it fits the bigger goal of making the site flexible instead of forcing everyone into only one kind of quiz path.

How the Categories Work Now

What started as a small project around just a couple of favorite topics gradually became a much broader site.

Now the categories make sure there is something for different kinds of players:

That is a completely different structure from the early version, where everything was split across separate sites and only a few topics existed at all.

Final Thought

The categories on Trivia Gauntlet were not planned all at once.

They came from growth, trial and error, and gradually realizing that the project needed to be broader, easier to manage, and more useful to different kinds of players.

It started with a few things I knew best. Then it expanded into the things I personally enjoyed most. After that, it grew further into bigger fandoms, broader knowledge areas, and categories that made sense based on player interest.

That is how the category system came to be.

And it is still growing.